But Ahmad Tejan Kabbah insisted that the May elections in which he came to power were not rigged.

The West African state of Sierra Leone emerged from a decade of civil war in early 2002, with the help of Britain and a large United Nations peacekeeping mission.

It is President Kabbah's second term as leader. During his first, he was toppled by disgruntled soldiers, but re-instated within the year.

In an interview with BBC's HARDtalk, he said he now enjoyed the full support of the army in his country.

Click here to watch the full interview

President Kabbah alleged that an opposition candidate had spoken to senior army officers and promised them all brand new Mercedes Benz cars and a trebling of their salaries if they voted against him.

But he claimed the situation had been resolved, adding: "They (the army officials) bought this idea. So I went to them and said, this is not possible. We don't have the money. I am now satisfied about their loyalty."

He told Tim Sebastian that although he was committed to his election pledge of fighting corruption, it would be foolish to think there was no high level fraud happening in the African state.

Charges

For anybody to say that you will get rid of corruption to the extent of 100%, you are living in a dream.

President Kabbah

"I will not say there are definitely no senior corrupt officials in Sierra Leone," he said, "it was in the BBC that I heard something recently, they were talking about corruption involving a high ranking official.

"For anybody to say that you will get rid of corruption to the extent of 100%, you are living in a dream."

He defended the lack of action against Transport minister Momoh Pujeh, who was arrested last year on suspicion of illegal diamond mining.

President Kabbah maintained that it was down to the police and the independent anti-corruption commission to bring charges.

He said he had no influence over the commission, explaining: "They never told me that they were going to arrest the minister until two minutes after they did it. Immediately after that I suspended the minister from his job."

Too many candidates

The president casting his vote

President Kabbah, who was returned to power with a 70% majority in May's elections, said procedure had to be followed and that he was "sure" that there would be prosecutions.

He also denied allegations of electoral fraud, even though some candidates managed to poll zero votes in the major cities.

"That is possible," said the President, "there were too many candidates, some of them people have not heard about them since. They didn't know what those people stood for."

Asked why the candidates or their own families would not have voted for themselves, he replied: "This is their business."

Praise for troops

The president has been dogged by allegations of electoral fraud since the spring, but defended himself, saying that an independent electoral commission had declared it "free and fair."

Turning to the shaky peace process in the country, President Kabbah, said he did not know how much longer UN peacekeeping troops would be in Sierra Leone.

But he praised their role, especially that of British troops, who have been standing in as teachers and even building roads.

"The British have been excellent. They are still essential. We are running the army but they are providing necessary advice."

The interview can be watched in full on Wednesday 24 July on BBC World and BBC News 24 at the following times:

BBC News 24 (times shown in BST)
0430, repeated 2230

BBC World (times shown in GMT)
0430, repeated 0930, 1130, 1630, 1930, 0030